Did you know that back in the late ’90s, Metallica released a medley that involved various Mercyful Fate songs? This medley is titled “Mercyful Fate,” and pulls from the band’s songs: “Satan’s Fall,” “Curse of the Pharaohs,” “A Corpse Without Soul,” “Into the Coven,” and “Evil.” For those unaware, this medley is part of Metallica’s compilation record, Garage Inc..
Via a recent interview with Dean Delray (of Let There Be Talk), King Diamond talked about a really awesome gift he treated himself to thanks to the royalties he got from that “Mercyful Fate” medley. The following was transcribed by Blabbermouth:
“Right when [Metallica’s medley] came out, yeah, it was nice. I got a Corvette out of it at the time. I got a black Corvette at the time that I could not have gotten otherwise. I had a Trans Am — I sold that and got a Corvette. So that was the initial impact at the time. Now, it’s, like, I guess if they do something special with it or whatever, then it does something, but that’s not what I live off, I can tell you that.”
King then goes on to talk about how he has also seen some royalties from work he did with the rock band Volbeat. “The same… I did something with Volbeat — the song that I did half the lyric for [Room 24] and it was nominated for a Grammy. But it’s not like… I can’t eat off of it; I can’t pay rent or anything off it.”
While Garage Inc. does feature a plethora of super cool covers, our personal favorite is that of the “Mercyful Fate” medley. We are glad to hear that King was able to treat himself so well thanks to those royalties! You can check out the Let There Be Talk interview with King Diamond below.